1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to document systems. It has particular applicability to reprographic systems having diagnostic capabilities.
2. Description of Related Developments
Reprographic machines having internal diagnostic capabilities are known. These machines can display a visual message to an operator indicating the existence of a common fault (for example, a paper jam) and give instructions for removal of the fault. Recently, reprographic machines with enhanced diagnostic capabilities yielding information useful to service engineers have been developed. These machines employ controllable user interfaces, such as touch screen video displays, for controlling operation of the machine and diagnosing faults. Systems for monitoring the operation of a plurality of these machines from a remote source by use of a powerful host computer having advanced, high level diagnostic capabilities have been installed. These systems have the capability to interact remotely with the machines being monitored to receive automatically or manually initiated requests for diagnosis and to interact with the requesting machine to request and receive stored operating parameter data to enable higher level diagnostic analysis. Such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,038,319 and 5,057,866 (the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference), owned by the assignee of the present invention. These systems employ Remote Interactive Communications (RIC) to enable transfer of selected machine operating data (referred to as machine physical data) to a remote site, at which the host computer is located, through a suitable communication channel. The machine physical data may be transmitted from a monitored document system to the remote site automatically at predetermined times and/or in response to a specific request from the document system. Alternatively, as shown in the above-noted patents, information may be provided to a personal computer at the remote site, that is capable of interacting with a remote document system for modifying alarm parameters within the remote system.
In a typical RIC system, the host computer is linked via a dedicated and/or public telephonic transmission system to local reprographic machines via modems. The host computer may include a compiler to allow communication with a plurality of different types of machines and an expert diagnostic system that performs higher level analysis of the machine physical data than is available from the diagnostic system in the machine. After analysis, the expert system can provide an instruction message which can be utilized by the machine operator at the site of the document system to overcome a fault. Alternatively, if the expert system determines that more serious repair is necessary or preventive maintenance is desirable, a message is sent to a local field work support office giving the identity of the machine and a general indication of the type of service action required. This information is then transmitted, usually orally, from a service dispatcher to a service technician. The system is disadvantageous from the standpoint that the communication between the dispatcher and the service technician is usually oral, the service dispatcher commonly has only limited information about the technical aspects of the machine requiring repair and the dispatcher normally has little time to spend in communicating the information. The result is that the field service technicians receive only limited information relating to the identity of the machine requiring service and brief indications of the primary problem or repair action. The service technician does not get historical machine operating data, service history or detailed descriptions of potential problems. As a result, the field service technician has incomplete information and may find that machine repair cannot be fully effected during the first repair visit because of the need for parts or test equipment not routinely carried by the technician. The result is a broken service call. Such broken service calls irritate the machine user because the equipment is not quickly returned to full service. Broken service calls are also expensive to the servicing organization because of the need to send a service representative more than one time for the same repair.